Kimi Raikkonen: “The car felt OK both on high and low fuel”

Kimi Raikkonen felt it was a positive day at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve after ending the day with the quickest time, with the Finn edging out Lewis Hamilton by 0.215 seconds.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver, who took his first pole position in nine years last time out in Monaco, was fourth fastest in the morning session before becoming the only driver to get below 1 minute 13 seconds in the afternoon, albeit by only 0.065 seconds.

Raikkonen felt the pace of his SF70-H was also good with higher fuel levels, which gives him confidence heading into the weekend, but he knows there are still things to improve on in order to stay ahead of the pack.

“It was a good day,” said Raikkonen. “Things worked out smoothly and the car felt OK both on high and low fuel; that’s the main thing. So far so good, but it’s still Friday and obviously there’s always things to improve.

“The nature of the circuit is quite tricky because of the low downforce configuration; in some corners, like in the chicanes, you have to use the kerbs a lot to go fast, but because of the low downforce the car is bouncing and it always feels very slippery.

“But at this track, given the long straights, to achieve pure lap time you have to drive in that configuration. Today we started pretty well, we keep on doing our usual work, trying to improve for tomorrow.”